She could not concentrate and remain rational much longer.
She stuffed Vane’s stasis container into a life pod.
Jettisoned him toward her fleet.
Alala and Tye raced in to intercept the pod.
Naero’s last conscious act of sanity.
She could no longer focus her will, her thoughts.
She nearly blacked out at that point, as her Dark Beast tapped in the energies she channeled and took full roaring control.
Then the real slaughter ensued, first among the drifting enemy fleets directly before her.
She vaguely recalled Om’s voice pleading with her, but could not reply.
She could no longer listen.
Like one of her nightmares come to life, Naero felt herself swell up to a huge, vast size, bloated with Cosmic power. She broke some of the enemy warships open as if they were toys. Like cracking poultry eggs.
She spilled their dying crews out into space. Laughing in glee like one completely mad.
WIPE THEM ALL OUT!
Then she formed a pinpoint of impossibly, ultra-dense, Darkforce energy. Surging, racing toward critical mass in seconds.
Concentrated power that laid waste to anything it touched.
The nano-singularity became a massive blinding orb of black disintegration. It pulled in all light.
The resulting Darkforce blast went far beyond any mere explosion.
It became a cataclysm that reduced all of the enemy fleets to ash and disintegrated any remnants to incinerated Cosmic dust.
Naero vaguely sensed cheering coming from her fleet and the allied forces still arriving off in the distance.
Until they attracted her leering attention.
Her Dark Beast swung around ominously.
Sweeping straight for them next.
Then everyone noticed something missing.
Naero vaguely noticed it too.
Planet Janosha simply wasn’t there any longer.
No debris. Nothing. Completely gone.
As if it never existed.
The vast beast she had become gloated drunkenly at them all, as one entirely devoid of any shred of sanity. A mindless thing, solely bent on oblivion.
Then a powerful sensation overtook her.
A glittering multitude of tiny shining lights enveloped her like a swirling nebula.
And for just a moment, the Dark Beast that she had become drew aside, transfixed and distracted by them all and their fluctuating glitter and shifting, shimmering movements.
She could not attack them.
They were nothing. No threat to her at all.
Far too small. Just tiny glittering flashes of bright light.
In her twisted, tormented heart and soul, Naero thought for certain that she heard the song of the Tua. Rejoicing and calling to her.
Yah-duu Ah Shah Lah! Shah hah lah shah-dae! Yah Jhah Vah Shah-Lae. Ae duu vah. Ae duu vah shah lah!
In the prison of her own dark soul and mind, Naero sobbed in the depths of her own self-inflicted torment and broke down, as if weeping. She tried to sing in answer with the Tua voices, but her slack mouth only worked and croaked like that of a mindless lunatic.
Yet the tiny shining lights and their swelling song somehow released her.
Their lights showed her a way out of her dark prison.
They helped set her free from the trap of her own flaws and imperfections, her own folly and madness.
Her Dark Beast lost its hold entirely, swept away by the torrent of light. All of its immense destroying power vanished and drained away into naught.
Om did something too. She knew not what at first.
Yes, he wrestled with her directly at last, for control of her very mind. He screamed at her, only she hadn’t been able to listen before.
Now she choked.
Air. Om cut off her air.
She could no longer breathe. There wasn’t enough oxygen.
She felt herself weaken and shrink down exponentially, losing her grip on the energy she’d stolen from the Janoshan cosmic flows.
But with the planet inexplicably gone now, the immense energy flows were suddenly gone as well. She could no longer feed and sustain herself. Replenishing the vast amounts of power the Dark Beast craved and fed upon.
As her power ebbed away, the fickle Beast could not grow any longer. And so it betrayed her again, slinking back into its dormant state to lick its wounds and bide its time deep within herself.
Abandoning its control of her. Beaten down.
Leaving her to perish all alone if need be.
Naero should have asphyxiated in space and died.
Parts of her mind begged Om to let her die that way.
But he ignored her, as usual, and activated her Nytex suit programming with teknomancing, pweaking up a bubble helmet and giving them a few precious minutes of air.
Until her friends from her fleet swept in to scoop her up.
In a haze, she thought she saw Saemar’s face through a glifter facemask, gathering her in gently, and sweeping her onboard The Dagger as it pulled up and opened a cargo bay.
*
Naero awoke in a medical bay containment cell on board her own small flagship, The Flying Dagger.
Zhen, Chaela, Saemar, Tarim, and Shalaen crowded together in her area, fidgeting and waiting for her to come around.
She sat up so suddenly she startled them all.
“What’s happening?” she demanded. “How’s the fleet? How many people did we lose in the battle? How many ships?”
Her friends placed their hands on her. Weeping with joy and relief to see her awake and sane once again.
“Oh, sweetie!” Saemar sobbed, getting down on her knees and sobbing and blubbering over her.
Soon Naero found herself in the awkward position of patting Saemar on the back and comforting her.
“Get off of her,” Chaela finally said. “Haisha! You’re a captain, for the love of the bloody stars. Get a hold of yourself!” But tears streamed down her face as well.
“Don’t worry about the fleet,” Tarim said. “Our losses in the end were extremely light.”
She stared at them, hesitant to ask. “Did I…did I kill any of our people?” She really could not remember if she had or not.
Shalaen and Zhen both bit their lips and put both of her hands on Naero’s.
“No, you did not,” Shalaen told her.
“It never came to that, En,” Zhen added.
Naero frowned.
This time.
She looked at the cell door. “So, how many Intel and Mystic guards are out there to keep watch over me, in case I lose it and turn into a monster again?”
Tarim shook his head.
“Not a one. They have ships watching us, but when they suggested some crap like placing guards on you, we told them all to go straight to hell.”
Chaela snorted, rambling on. “We told them the same thing, when next they demanded that we turn you over to them. That other General Ingersol is a total dumbshit too, just like his twin brother that got himself arrested. Ordering us to hand you right over to him. Immediately. Intel my ass. How come Shadowforce didn’t know about these damn attacks in the first place? None of this should have ever happened.”
“You did them a big favor, sweetie.” Saemar snapped her fingers. “Look at you. Rescued the High Master and wiped out a bunch of alien clone fleets. All by yourself. That was…quite a show you put on. Haisha! What the bloody hell are those Mystics teaching you anyway?”
“They ought to be thanking you,” Tarim said. “Not treating you like some kind of menace.”
Naero covered her face with her hands. “I am a menace. I…I think I may have vaporized and entire planet. I…I might have killed everyone. Guys…I guess I am a monster now.”
Nobody knew how to field that for a long moment.
“None of us know what happened to Janosha,” Shalaen said flatly. “Not even me. I was as surprised as much by the planet’s sudden disappearance
as everyone else. Yet it is not clear, Naero, that you had anything to do with it.”
Naero leaned forward with her forearms resting on her thighs and knitted her fingers together nervously. She covered her face.
She attempted to laugh. “Yeah, sure. Whole planets just vanish like that all the time. Guys, I’m serious. Maybe you should turn me over to the authorities.”
“Now I know you’re crazy, sweetie.”
Saemar felt her forehead.
Zhen closed her eyes and clenched her teeth. “Un-frickin’ believable. It’s not like she’s sick. She doesn’t have a fever, you moron!”
“How do you know? I think she feels a little hot.”
“You two stop before I clobber you both,” Chaela said. She turned back to Naero.
“Tell us what really happened, En?”
“It’s a pretty long story,” she said.
Zhen looked around at the others. They all looked back and nodded.
“We’re not going anywhere for a while.”
“Hey, I am beyond incredibly famished,” Naero told them, her empty stomach churning. “Can we…get something to eat?”
They ended up in The Dagger’s galley.
How ironic that an interstellar menace–a monster such as herself–would take time to cook chow for her mates.
Naero made grilled hooma bread sandwiches for them all with micken eggs, thick slices of Spum, tart red-violet sevari tomatoes, purple lettuce, and green durro cheese.
She gobbled down three of the sandwiches herself.
How good did that taste?
Without warning Naero launched into her story.
Four hours later, they were all crying with her, and sitting on the floor of the galley together getting drunk on a case of illegal Cymbellin scotch.
By then they were all out of Spacer poteen.
Naero wiped her face dry with her hands and took another belt.
Her speech slurred. She probably couldn’t stand.
“Now you guys know what happened, and how completely messed up I truly am.”
“Sweetie, you didn’t do anything the rest of us wouldn’t have done in the same situation.”
Zhen touched her arm again. “You’re still a good person, En. You are.”
Even Shalaen protested. “It isn’t your fault you haven’t finished your Mystic training and learned to control your powers yet.”
Shalaen was the only one still sober. No matter how much she drank, the booze simply didn’t affect her.
Tarim got a call on his com. He hit the button on the fourth attempt, listened quietly, and then signed off.
“That was our good buddy, General Thadian Ingersol. They’ve finally reached High Master Vane. He’s furious, as usual, and insists on meeting with you as soon as possible. On Taeha. To meet with him and the other two High Masters.”
If they left quickly, they could make it there in a little over a standard week.
“We’re all with you, Naero,” Chaela told her. “Whatever you need from us.”
Saemar said the same thing. “We’re right here with you, sweetie. No matter what.”
Her parents always told her to face everything in life with courage.
At least she had Jan back now–safe with Baeven for the time being. No one else but her closest friends knew about that.
She hoped that she could see and talk to him again.
If the High Masters allowed her keep living
She had her friends and people who loved her and still believed in her.
Why, she wasn’t exactly sure anymore.
Naero sighed deeply, but did not hesitate any further.
“Tell Intel and the High Masters…all of them…that I’ll comply.”
THE END
Please enjoy the following teaser…and excerpt, from the next Spacer Clans Adventure, Book Three:
NAERO’S FURY
by Mason Elliott
Naero hadn’t done it much, but going into a trance to enter the Astral Plane shouldn’t be all that difficult. Master Vane had shown her how once. And she had gone there lots of times in her sleep, in her mind, to speak with Khai, using their astral crystals.
Before her friend Khai had vanished without a trace.
Yet she had never been trained in astral travel, and didn’t know much about exploring or moving around. Master Vane had taken her there once, just to teach her the basics and give her his marker. Many other times later to spar with her.
If nothing else, she could probably focus on his marker and locate him.
Zhen had roused Naero and reminded her it was time. And that she and Shalaen would monitor her while she was in the astral trance.
Naero focused her mind and abilities, controlling her breathing. Remembering the little she had learned.
Within several minutes of focused meditation, she open her eyes and found herself floating in the Astral Miasma, the nebulae of energy. Hugging her knees to her chest.
Om spoke to her, even more easily here than in her own mind before.
I have accessed some of the Kexxian Matrix’s data files on The Astral Plane. Like everything else, they explored it quite extensively.
Om, I’m naked here. I’m not complaining, But how do I put astral clothing on again?
You control everything here by imagination, and force of will. Concentrate on your favorite clothing and they’ll appear.
That’s easy.
She looked down and saw her favorite Nytex flight togs, programmed just the way she liked them.
Naero blinked, spinning and twirling in one spot, turning upside down.
Why can’t I move more than a meter at a time in front of us?
You’re not used to this reality. So it’s not clear to you.
The air around her looked opaque. Not mist. Not smoke or vapor. And it glow slightly with its own bluish-gray light.
In the twilight she glowed softly blue-white with her own light. From within.
“I once heard rumors that the Mystics could travel and send messages this way, but I thought it was all just a myth.”
Since the other planes are entire universes within themselves, it is said, they are all nearly infinite. Thus it is difficult to pin point any kind of location or person unless you already know them.
Naero instinctively tried to stand up, but there was nothing to stand on.
Then she recalled Master Vane’s Marker, and it appeared right before her. Where she found him, she would find the other High Masters.
At least she deserved a chance to be heard by them all. To try to explain herself and her actions.
Naero could not simply stand by and let them decide her fate without herself being present.
She focused on the crimson and black star more and swept forward, seemingly at great speed.
She came to an abrupt halt, like a starship coming out of jump at its destination.
The opacity around them partially melted back. They proceeded forward, opening her visual field far wider. She made out the area around them as the miasma peeled back.
Slightly below them she saw spheres within glowing spheres, all spinning within greater spheres.
Her own sphere, glowing white-blue suddenly surrounded her like a glittering soap bubble.
Yet it did not pop when she poked at it.
One sphere in particular, the largest, glowed and pulsed blood red, containing a withered old man with a long beard, pacing impatiently.
Burning eyes vanished and re-appeared at random all over his bald head. The red sphere absorbed Master Vane’s marker.
Was this his true form? What he really looked like?
His scarlet sphere was also flanked by two smaller spheres with figures inside them.
Om made a calculated guess.
His current guardian adepts, no doubt. The ones you rescued from the enemy Darkforce generators.
I think so Om.
At most times, every High Master had at least two champion adepts protecting him or her, eac
h of them very close to mastery themselves. Like Hashiko had been.
Naero studied Vane’s new guardians for the very first time, and tried to see into their spheres.
Something about them did seem strangely familiar.
One of Vane’s adepts, the male, appeared to be so deep dark black, he could be a singularity. This adept’s sphere was flat black on the surface and barely transparent.
If Naero had been able to breathe, she would have gasped.
Instead she simply raised her hand to her mouth.
She recalled that she had seen many of these adepts long before.
In her dreams, nightmares, and crazed visions. Perhaps even on the Astral Plane somehow.
Vane’s other adept was the white female, the exact opposite of the other. So brilliant and blindingly radiant, she could be a pulsar. Her orb was like a high intensity bulb, blinding and almost completely crystal clear.
It occurred to Naero that during her initial testing, Klyne had male and female assistants as well.
She couldn’t guess what the significance of that pattern was all about. Perhaps just some weird Mystic, egalitarian tradition.
Then why weren’t any of the High Masters female?
Everyone seemed to ignore her where she floated.
The next larger sphere, farther away, glowed silver-blue.
If she focused intently on it, she discovered she could zoom in with her third eye. Her mind’s eye.
Within a silver man sat serenely, neither young nor old. Master Tree in his purest form of order.
Two smaller guardian spheres flanked him.
Master Tree’s female adept glowed with intense blue energy in a deep blue sphere.
The male likewise glowed with vibrant green force within a green sphere, a shining sword sheathed down his broad athletic back. He seemed very familiar somehow.
She did a double-take. Long blond hair. Green skin. Big glowing sword.
Yep. In the flesh. Or…astral form at least.
It was Khai! She was sure of it. He was alive.
Had he actually succeeded in his great task of forging his mystic sword in the heart of a gigantic pulsar? Was that it on his back?
Naero gasped again. Now that she knew what he looked like, Khai was also the dreamy green hunk from many past, pent up nightmares. The one who kept sticking his sword through her head.
Spacer Clans Adventure 2: Naero's Gambit Page 42